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Learn something everytime! Now I realize that it is foolish to rely on keeping one's email account with any of these Internet Service Providers! Which is perhaps the only reason why one would want to tranfer service verses starting a new account. Another advantage of starting a new service would be to take advantage of any current promotions Comcast might be running.

Thank you HoustonRealtor, gnu and gwilson for your input. The RICH club seem interesting and has a track record. TonyH: Thanks for the suggestion to define investment goals. My goal is not to flip, rather to buy, do minor repairs and hold for a while. Also, I'd like not to invest anymore money than the initial downpayment (or purchase price in the case of tax sale) and for the property to yield positive cash flow after paying for mortgage, insurance, repairs etc., Am not a very handy person so would rely on contracting out maintenance. Want to concentrate just in the TMC/Museum district area for the moment. Also am a newbie to the area and real estate in general. Hence want to learn through joining clubs, books, networking etc., If some benovolent soul would be my mentor, and trust me on my word that I would never, ever become their competitor - would be grateful! Of course I'd volunteer my time in the process. "If the seller could sell it for more, why give it to you for a discount?" - I have no idea why, except what I saw in the short time I was at the Family Law Center. Quite a few of the properties were going for the asking price, as well as some which was not even bid for the minimum price and were reverting to the county. I do not know if other liens could be on a tax sale property, but thought that a tax sale wipes out all other liens.

Hi thanks HoustonRealtor for your kind words! You remember my other debacle! Hopefully things would start quieting down from now on!

Any suggestion as to a good REI club to join in the Houston area? Am looking to learn about RE investing and tax foreclosure sales. Happened to be near the Family Law Center (?) during last month's tax sale and was amazed at the number of people participating as well as the number of properties on sale. How can something just sell for an asking amount, far below the HCAD value, and sometimes with no takers? Are there other 'unknowns' like liens etc.,? I thought a tax sale trumps all other liens? Anyway, just looking or a real estate investment club to join, as well as any other suggestions like books etc., pertaining to Houston real estate. Thanks.

Just thought I would share my experience with Comcast High Speed internet in the Houston area. Hopefully it might be of use to someone who is relocating from another state like we did. We moved a couple of months ago. We had been using Comcast for over 7 years for our internet and cable and did not have major problems. Comcast was to do a simple connection of service in Houston, and disconnect service in the midwest, and refund a deposit. If only things were that simple! They connected our service in Houston. Everything went well for a couple of weeks and then they ubruptly disconnected the service. Tech support would only say that it is not a technical issue and we should call sales. Sales would only confirm that the service has indeed been disconnected (we knew that!) and we would need to be reconnected. And it will take 2 weeks to schedule a technician to come over. The service was reconnected, and everything went well for a week. Then it got disconnected again. This time we went straight to sales, who promptly advised us that our service was indeed disconnected and they would send a technician over to reconnect us. No reason as to the underlying reason why the service was being disconnected. Since we rely on VOIP for our telephone, our cell phone bills quickly add up calling customer service and others. To add insult to injury they would not even put in an expedite request on the service. We had to wait our turn to be served. We learnt later that they had not disconnected our service up north, and had not processed our refund. Calling the 1-800 number is of no use since calls are routed to the local customer service based on the area code of the number you are calling from. Anyway, found out the email address of Rick Germano, Senior Vice President of Customer Operations (TheOfficeofRickGermano_Feedback@cable.comcast.com). Explained in an email about our plight. We heard from someone the very next day and our connection was restored without further delay. Lessons learnt: 1. Never transfer service from a different State. Start a new account. Avoids confusion. 2. Escalate an issue when you are given the run around. Given the utter contempt customer service at Comcast seems to have for their customers, I wonder how they continue to be in business? You have to speak to a different person each call, they claim they cannot call you back, and there is no way to get to a specific CSR. You end up having to explain the same crap to numerous people and risk getting disconnected at any given time.

We moved to one of the new small gated communities in Houston. The gate only serves to give a false sense of security. The past week or so the gate has gotten stuck quarter of the way and the dang thing can't be closed or opened. Plus even when it worked one needed to close it after one entered or exited the premises. And most people never bothered to.

I'm surprised so many people are aware of this, yet nothing has been done about it! They seem to have a virtual lock on a particular segment of the market and both builders and customers lose in this process. I say this because I've come to know that this is not an isolated incident and is pretty common with this company. I thought in a free market, the system pretty much regulated itself by weeding itself out of entities that makes it inefficient.

Just wanted to bring this issue up to date! It turns out that the "buyer intermediary" did not have his realtor's license, and was not even in the employ of the real estate company when we closed on the house! To dalparadise: Checked all our paperwork. Other than page 9 of the TREC form where the realtor had inserted the "buyer intermediary" and seller agent information, we have never signed off on having realtor representation. I understand that the builder has filed suit with the realtor for various issues, including deceptive practices. Thanks to everyone for their help.

I do not know much about the immigration pattern from India, but the fact is that the current visa regime is pretty stringent resulting in many legal visa holders becoming 'illegal' in status. Work visas are for a period of 3 years, which may be extended by a further 3 years, while there is a countrywide quota as to the number of immigrants that can be admitted each year. The quota includes the number of immigrants granted permanent resident status through family reunion and other non-employment based visas. Thus an employee admitted legally can end up overstaying his visa for no fault of his/hers.

All I initialled was a page 9 titled "Broker Information and Ratification of Fee", which sheet was essentially blank. The builder also initialled this sheet, and the title company sent us a copy of the executed contract by snail mail. I did not sign any intermediary designation form (if you discount unauthorized additions by the Realtor to page 9). Since I did not have broker represented in the contract, I'm not sure how we ended up with an agent.

Herein lies the problem. The only people who drew up the contract was the builder and us. The builder then filed it with the title company who snail mailed a copy of the contract which still showed the sheet blank with the builders and my initials at the bottom. Only one of us had signed the contract and initialled each sheet from the buyers side. The tampered sheet showed both the buyers agent (intermediary), and the seller's agent information filled out by someone, with a stipulation that 3% of commission will be payed to the buyers agent. We refused to endorse this doctored sheet with my initials during the closing. I agree with you that the contract may be a work in progress. However, what right does a person who was never a party to the contract to go ahead make changes, passing off as a buyers agent, when he is not authorized to do so, and did not have any paperwork stating that he represents the buyer? I couln't agree with you more on this! So I take it that the boys get off free and clear since it is a general practice for Realtors to look through documents in the possession of a title company and just include their names as buyers/sellers agents if they are left blank?

Just curious, how come in TREC website there is no information regarding this firm or its chief? Are they a DBA company with an alias registered with TREC?

HoustonRealtor, dalparadise: The Realtor/agency in question is not from West U. The Realtor who gave us the map etc., was from West U! RedScare: Thank you for your comprehensive replies and your offer of help! YGPM!

Gentlefolk, Thank you so very much for all your response! We moved to Houston after living in the midwest for over 20 years. It was extremely lonesome to be stuck in a system seemingly so alien to what we were used to. I am grateful for this site, and for your replies! We are temporarily back in MI for winding things down, and it feels good to know that what happened was wrong. TJones: Thanks for the warm welcome! jm1fd: Thanks to you, and we will complain for sure. jt16: We did not sign any contract with the sleazy Realtor! Matter of fact he went out of the way to lead us to believe that he is The builder. RedScare: Thanks for the comprehensive list of places that we can file a complaint! And for advising us not to reveal the slime's name on the BB. We had initialed page 9 of the contract pertaining to buyer and seller agent. There was nothing filled out (buyer/seller agent details). The builder signed the contract, filed it with the title company who mailed us a copy of the contract, with page 9 still unfilled. The Realtor's information was filled in AFTER the contract was executed, some 2 days before we closed on the house. Could you please tell me what exactly should be the nature of the complaint for it to be effective: Is it the misrepresentation, tampering with a legal document etc.,? Could I name the agent/Realtor etc., or just the company? dalpardise: I just checked the form. It is a TREC form titled "Promulgated by the Texas Real Estate Commission, New Home Contract". Sadly, the buyers agent that we first met, who gave us the Houston map etc., himself did not sign any paperwork with us! He did not protest about not getting the commission since he did not want to hold up our closing. Our reason to complain is two fold: To insure that the sleazy agent does not continue to misrepresent and intimidate buyers. And to possibly reduce his commission earned by doctoring a contract that he was not party to. We realized that the buyers agent did not do much to earn his commission! HoustonRealtor: Thank you for the welcome! Yes, after the first couple of days we started enjoying Houston and its rich culture! Love the weather after the biting cold weather of Michigan! gwilcon: Thank you for telling us about HAR. Our heartfelt thanks to everyone who responded! It means a lot to us! Thanks.

We moved to Houston at short notice from Detroit, MI. We did not have any leads as to new homes, leads etc., We went to a Realtor in the West University, Houston picked up a map and essentially drove around the inner loop area in search of new homes. Also did research online and had a list of new homes. While driving to one of the homes on our list, we could not find the exact address even though we were in the vicinity. Called a telephone number and a guy said he was right there and we were just in the next street. Found the place. The man introduced himself as the "builder". We also noticed another lady on the property. Somehow we did not feel comfortable with the guy. He kept wanting to see his 'other properties' and to first visit his office. We went back to the home the next day, only to find out that the man we met the previous day was a real estate broker! We met the actual builder, settled on a price, Signed a contract then and there and left. The real estate called us and we politely told him that we had our own agent; he nevertheless wanted us to speak to his "boss" who tried to convince us to come meet him. We had no reason to and left Houston shortly. We were sent a copy of the executed contract by the title company. Everything seemed to be in order. A few days before closing we realized that we had not filled in our buyer's real estate agent's name on the contract. We contacted the builder and the title company. To our surprise the title company informed us that the realtor information for both buyer and seller's agent has been filled out already! We asked for a copy of the sheet, and sure enough it had been filled in with the sleazy guy's firm as both the buyers and seller's realtor. And they had awarded themselves 3% commission for being the buyers agent! The page had been tampered with after the contract was executed, and it had our initials on it. We promptly informed the title company that we did not authorize the changes. The builder meanwhile informed us that he was trying to get the sleazy realtor off representing his properties and wanted a letter from us about his misrepresentation to us, which we did. Builder also requested us to file a complaint with TREk (sp?). We contacted the Realtor. Only to have him scream at us, actually threaten us, and again threaten to sue us into bankruptcy should we go to TREK. It was a miserable experience since we were already on the road to Houston for the closing. We did not know the real estate law in TX, and we NEEDED a home! To cut a long story short, we drove into town Monday morning, and closed on the house at 4:00 PM. Our buyer's agent knew about this Realtor and advised us to go through the closing and did not get his commission. He did not want to tie up the closing by disputing the contract. The title company's response as to how they would allow the tampering of an executed document was "what goes around comes around, they (sleazy agent) will get their turn". Is this a normal thing in Texas for Realtors to behave in such sleazy manner? What kind of fiduciary responsibility does the Title company have when it blatantly allows a third party to amend an executed contract? And how exactly does a Realtor go about 'bankrupting' a homeowner who files a legitimate complaint with a regulatory body? Am sorry for this long winded post. Just wanted to warn potential out of state home buyers of new homes in Houston. We have since checked on the BBB and found that the realtor has an "Unsatisfactory" rating.